New three-dimensional requirements set the tone for 6G as standardization gets going
- Standardization of 6G has taken a significant step forward with key ICT industry players discussing a key set of radio requirements to be met by 6G networks.
- Explore the most important requirements in this blog post and learn about the concept of three-dimensional joint requirements.
Principal Researcher, Radio Access Network standardization
Technical Coordinator, Radio Access Network standardization
Head of radio-near concept and spectrum standardization
Principal Researcher, Radio Access Network standardization
Technical Coordinator, Radio Access Network standardization
Head of radio-near concept and spectrum standardization
Principal Researcher, Radio Access Network standardization
Technical Coordinator, Radio Access Network standardization
Head of radio-near concept and spectrum standardization
Future 6G networks are expected to contribute to the digitalization and virtualization of all parts of life, society, and industries, fulfilling the communication needs of humans as well as intelligent machines. To bring this vision to life and start the process of making 6G a reality, the ICT industry first needs to align its view on the use cases and requirements provided by future networks. At the 3GPP RAN #106 meeting in Madrid in December 2024, 3GPP took one important step towards this alignment by starting discussions on the requirements it considers vital for networks in 2030 and beyond. These requirements will inspire and motivate 3GPP as we now start the journey towards 6G.
International Telecommunication Union Radio Communication sector (ITU-R) is the organization that formally sets the bar for IMT-2030, that is, 6G. The ITU-R also governs the process to identify spectrum for 6G, perhaps the most important tool to build global consensus for the cellular industry. In Madrid, 3GPP took the opportunity to inform the ITU-R about its 6G requirement workplan and initial agreements to seek alignment between the two organizations.
Ericsson proposes a mix of traditional radio requirements such as speed and capacity and new requirements associated with new cellular services and societal expectations like:
- Immersive communication
Requirements on data rate, latency, and reliability need to be combined into joint requirements to support augmented reality, virtual reality, remote driving, and cloud gaming. - Sustainable communication
Networks that are more energy-efficient than ever before are needed. - Sensing
A novel technology where the system can act as a radar to detect objects such as drones, vehicles, and pedestrians. - Positioning
The new radio technology must support 3D-based positioning for applications like augmented and virtual reality.
In this blog post, we will take a closer look at what Ericsson proposes, focusing on key 6G use cases and requirements that reflect anticipated real-life use cases in 2030 and key trends in our society.
Now, let’s look at the requirements to understand what they are all about!
6G requirements
Differentiated connectivity
By 2030, we foresee that more advanced versions of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality (VR, MR, and AR respectively) services, are generally available. Beyond these immersive communication use cases, 6G networks will support services such as remote driving, video conferencing, and cloud gaming at scale. Each service has its own set of combined requirements for data rates, latency, and reliability. Hence, we believe that a 6G technology needs to meet joint requirements comprising combinations of data rate, latency, and reliability.
Requirements like these drive 3GPP to make bold decisions when designing the 6G technology. This is needed as 3GPP’s 6G system, like any other technology that would like to be defined as 6G, needs to meet these tough requirements at the end of the day. For 5G, quite some focus was spent on developing functionality to support rather extreme reliability with ultra-low latency. Wide commercial uptake of use cases demanding this capability is however, yet to be seen. Learning from this, we believe that for 6G it is better to have combinations of requirements that are both visionary and commercially driven. We envision achieving this by selecting a set of example services to define the requirements. For each of the targeted services, there will be a requirement combination in terms of data rate, latency, and reliability. A typical example is XR, where a 30 Mbps throughput, 40 ms two-way latency, and a reliability to support 99 percent of all transmissions to be successful are expected.
Energy performance of future networks
Energy performance on the network and device sides a top priority for Ericsson and the industry at large. 6G will be a vital component for delivering on our ambition to reach net zero global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our value chain by 2040.
On Ericsson’s insistence, 5G was designed from the start to be more energy-efficient than 4G by introducing a lean design with less “always on” signals. For 6G, it is time to take the next step on this journey, building on the work in 5G and further exploring ways to reduce network energy consumption. Read more about this in our white paper Ericsson's 6G RAN vision: Boosting energy efficiency.
For 5G, the ITU-R had qualitative requirements on network energy efficiency. Proponents of a 5G technology were required to describe what functionality had been introduced to lower energy consumption in the system, but were not asked to quantify the actual reductions. For 6G, it’s time to raise the bar. 6G needs to go beyond this to also include quantitative and measurable requirements. Specifically, it should establish energy consumption requirements relative to previous generation technologies.
Sensing for navigation and tracking
Sensing is a novel technology where the cellular system functions as a radar, allowing a base station or device to detect objects in its surroundings. While positioning (described below) concerns the localization of objects, sensing includes presence and absence detection, object classification, and continuous tracking. Unlike positioning, the sensed objects detected are passive, meaning they do not actively participate in the sensing procedure by transmitting or receiving any signals. The key aspect with sensing is to integrate it into 6G to create an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system. More technical details on sensing can be found in the blog posts Integrated Sensing and Communications use cases in America - Ericsson and ISAC: Integrated Sensing and Communication - Ericsson.
To exemplify, the sensed object could for example be a drone that is monitored for flight path tracking and navigation.
Positioning in the cyber-physical world
In the cyber-physical world enabled by immersive communication, 3D-based positioning is required for use cases such as mixed reality to function properly. It is a key capability for accurate representation, localization, and tracking of connected objects such as wearables, vehicles, and collaborative robots in a digital representation of the world.
Therefore, Ericsson has been proposing that immersive communication use cases should not only support high reliability and low latency communication but also enable precise positioning of connected objects. To support immersive communication, the positioning of modeled devices must be highly accurate and extend beyond current conventional 2D positioning, to cover all three dimensions of the room.
In addition to immersive communication experiences, it is important that a 6G technology supports positioning for emergency use cases, like earlier generations of cellular systems have.
Raising the bar on performance
The 6G radio technology should also outperform 5G, delivering better user experience, allowing expansion of established services, and spark innovation to support exploration of new domains and use cases. To ensure this, 3GPP and ITU-R will, in addition to the above outlined requirements on differentiated connectivity, energy performance, sensing, and positioning, also define traditional radio requirements for 6G in terms of:
- Data rate
- Spectral efficiency
- System capacity
- Mobility
- Latency
3GPP 6G timeline and work process
Let’s now look at the 6G timeline and how the formal 6G requirements process works.
3GPP began its work on 6G already in May 2024 with an SA1 workshop focused on end-to-end use cases, followed by the approval of an SA1 study on 6G use cases. SA1 is the group in 3GPP that is responsible for determining 6G use cases and their associated requirements. According to the 3GPP agreed 6G timeline, that we wrote about in our blog post 6G standardization timeline and principles, the work carried out in Madrid on 6G radio key performance indicators builds upon these efforts.
It is, however, not 3GPP, but actually the ITU-R, that formally sets the bar that a new radio technology must pass in order to qualify as an IMT-2030 technology (that is, a 6G system) and join 3G, 4G, and 5G in the IMT family. The ITU-R is currently in the process of defining these requirements and is asking external organizations for inputs and views. This is significant because the ITU-R also governs the global spectrum alignment process. This process, where spectrum for use by the IMT technology family is identified, is perhaps the most important tool for building global consensus on mobile spectrum to be used by the cellular industry. Since 3GPP is targeting to define the most capable 6G technology, close collaboration between 3GPP and the ITU-R is vital. In Madrid, 3GPP took the opportunity to inform the ITU-R about its 6G requirement workplan and initial agreements to seek alignment between the two organizations.
The next steps in 6G standardization
3GPP has started the 6G work and given its workplan and initial recommendations to ITU-R on radio requirements for use cases of the future. For this, Ericsson is proposing to include:
- Joint 3D requirements on data rate, latency, and reliability to support services such as augmented reality, virtual reality, remote driving, and cloud gaming.
- Energy performance, by setting quantitative requirements to make 6G networks more energy-efficient than previous generations.
- Sensing, a novel technology where the system can act as a radar to detect objects, such as drones and vehicles.
- Positioning, to ensure that the radio technology supports 3D-based positioning for applications such as augmented and virtual reality.
The requirements will motivate 3GPP to deliver an open, high-performing, and energy- efficient 6G system addressing differentiated connectivity, sensing, and positioning in support of a cyber-physical world.